Undercutting

Maintenance of the ballast layer directly below the ties is an essential part of a healthy track structure. Ballast degrades over time and becomes increasingly fouled reducing its ability to drain, provide adequate load bearing support and withstand vertical, lateral and longitudinal forces. Undercutting is needed to restore the desired ballast properties after becoming fouled. Undercutting is the continuous excavation of the material beneath the ties. The material excavated can either be fully wasted or screened and returned to the track with only the fines being discarded.

Loram offers two automated undercutter platform solutions delivering industry-leading productivity, reestablishing a more permeable ballast and a stronger structure. Loram’s UC1200 is an undercutter cleaner that allows the larger, cleaned ballast to be reclaimed. Loram’s Track Lifter Undercutter (TLU) is a waste-only undercutter. Both types of undercutters utilize patented, state-of-the-art undercutting digging wheels that provide self-supporting cut-in capabilities. The UC1200 and TLU are operational in a fraction of the time of competitive machines and require no additional support equipment or excavators that complicate operations and add costs.